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EVANGELISTIC WORK IN THE COUNTRY. 183II.THE EVANGELISM OF THE RANK AND FILE.By the rank and file I mean the lay and ordinarymembers of the churches in China, who while pursuingtheir ordinary daily callings do very real evangelisticwork by the witness they bear among their heathenneighbours. This is by no means an insignificant part ofthe great problem of evangelism, for testimony aboundsto the fact that almost wherever there is rapid growth inthe number of converts, it is very largely due to the faithful witness borne in the country districts by the livesof those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ as Lordand Saviour. That this is as itought to be will beacknowledged by all, and it is most fitting that this formof service should have a front place in a report like this.A missionary writes me from the province of Kiang-that another missionary with whom he was conversingsitold him that since the revival last year his difficultyhad been to keep the Chinese helpers from overworkingwhere formerly he had to press them to go to the country.When such a zeal possesses the preaching staff we maywell expect the rank and file to be earnest in their endeavours to reach their heathen friends, and reports fromso many parts of China all bear evidence to this fact.A missionary from the province of Shansi told methat the Chinese Christians in a certain city, very coldand dead in past years, were now most zealous in theirdesire for souls, going out two-and-two each Sunday afternoon to the near villages. Good results were following.Perhaps the most notable instance of the results ofthe individual testimony of the rank and file of thechurches is to be found in the work among the aboriginal tribes of the Western provinces of Yunnan andKweichow the; large numbers that have been gatheredinto the churches there during the past three years havebeen unique in the history of Chinese missions, and inmore respects than one the movement resembles that inCorea. A missionary writing from the province of Yunnan says: "The work among the Chinese has, for the

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